Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. the overnight shift, the late shift.

[1907		Collier’s 26 Jan. 14: From the saloons came the clink of the chips. For it was the ‘graveyard gamblers’ shift [...] The small hours of the morning ].
1908		Sat. Eve. Post 7 Nov. 27: A month later he and his fellows went on ‘graveyard’ shift. ‘Graveyard’ is the interval between twelve, midnight, and eight in the morning .
1913		H.A. Franck Zone Policeman 88 143: The legal occupant of the bunk I fell asleep in returned from duty at midnight and I transferred to the still warm nest of a man on the ‘grave-yard’ shift.
1922		M.E. Smith Adventures of a Boomer Op. 25: I was on the graveyard shift here at Billings, Montana.
1938		W. Smitter F.O.B. Detroit 145: Colored fella on the graveyard shift is gettin’ out seventy blocks every hour.
1943		Reader’s Digest Aug. 98: This child wandered the streets every night until her parents, who work on the ‘graveyard’ shift, vacated a bed in the crowded home.
1945		F.H. Hubbard Railroad Avenue 345: Graveyard Watch – [...] any midnight shift.
1952		W.R. Burnett Little Men, Big World 122: The clock at the fire house struck one solemnly. Downy sighed and puffed on his cigarette. The grave-yard watch now.
1957		(con. 1944) A. Myrer Big War 348: Coming off work when I had the graveyard shift. Get off about ten of seven.
1966		R. Stone Hall of Mirrors (1987) 78: It’s the graveyard shift and the pay is scurrilous.
1970		in P.R. Runkel Law Unto Themselves 168: We just got down to sex [...] most everyday and unless I worked graveyard, most every night.
1983		N. Heard House of Slammers 40: At about 1:30 a.m. the graveyard shift usually came on duty.
1993		Tarantino & Avery Pulp Fiction [film script] 123: She’s working the graveyard shift at the hospital.
2004		M. Heatley John Peel 45: He quickly secured the graveyard shift of midnight to 2 a.m.
2012		J. Clifford ‘Occupy Opportunity’ in C. Rhatigan and N. Bird (eds) Pulp Ink 2 [ebook] Make it quick. Rox gets off the graveyard soon.
2015		Cape Argus Online (Cape Town) 16 Oct. 🌐 I was stil doing graveyard shifts in TV.
2017		T. Pluck Bad Boy Boogie [ebook] ‘I’ll have you on the graveyard shift for the rest of your career’.
2023		F. Bill Back to the Dirt 26: [H]e got home at 6:30 a.m., after working the graveyard shift.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

1977		E. Bunker Animal Factory 191: Lowly guards who didn’t want to spend a year in a graveyard-shift wall post.
1999		E. Bunker Mr Blue 30: At midnight, when the shift changed, my door opened again and two graveyard shift attendants came in.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 65: Beverly Hills PD ran two graveyard-watch felony cars.